We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. This website uses cookies that provide targeted advertising and which track your use of this website. By clicking ‘continue’ or by continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.ContinueFind out more

Definition of dictionary in English:

dictionary

noun

1A book or electronic resource that lists the words of a language (typically in alphabetical order) and gives their meaning, or gives the equivalent words in a different language, often also providing information about pronunciation, origin, and usage.

‘I'll look up 'love' in the dictionary’

‘the website gives access to an online dictionary’

as modifier‘the dictionary definition of ‘smile’’

‘I can remember my schoolteacher telling me to look a word up in the dictionary.’

‘There is not a word in the English dictionary to really describe this pre-meditated act of evil and wickedness.’

‘Taberah was reading the bilingual dictionary with rapt concentration.’

‘Questions as to the meaning of words in documents can rarely, if ever, be determined conclusively by reference to dictionaries.’

‘Apart from in books and dictionaries it was a word that was hardly heard.’

‘Mark Twain claimed never to have coined a word as far as he knew, though historical dictionaries list him as the first user of many.’

‘And can we take a moment to thank all our readers who sent in English slang dictionaries?’

‘I keep turning to the dictionary and the thesaurus, not for a reference, simply to read words at random.’

‘The problem is that my French vocabulary is so poor that I end up having to look up every other word in a dictionary so it takes ages.’

‘We had to get up at one point and look up a word in the dictionary because he didn't believe me that it existed.’

‘She also started compiling a dictionary of youth slang first used by the transvestite community.’

‘The software uses a standard dictionary, designed by Kiran, to accomplish the task.’

‘We're calling the film Incubus because we looked the word up in the dictionary and thought it sounded enigmatic.’

‘Later reference to a dictionary illuminated the answer, but by that stage all had been revealed.’

‘The latest dictionary contains new words and phrases that sum up life in the UK today.’

‘‘Personhood’ is not found in many dictionaries or reference works.’

‘Group 1 selected equivalents for a test item on a multiple-choice test by using only the monolingual English dictionary.’

‘Seventy years ago, the Philological Society had resolved to publish a completely new English dictionary.’

‘Often he would search for minutes in his Arabic-English dictionary for the exact word he wanted.’

‘On the surface, both are among the simplest of words in the French dictionary.’

1.1A reference book on a particular subject, the items of which are typically arranged in alphabetical order.

‘a dictionary of quotations’

‘The standard dictionaries of English quotations don't have a single Indian entry.’

‘Why he managed to justify murder and get into all the quotation dictionaries with a comment that is obvious to any cook and irrelevant to mass murder is the sort of question that politicians don't answer.’

‘Save for a brief quotation from a dictionary of folklore, I have so far neglected Anglo-Saxon attitudes.’

‘For his castaway book he picks a dictionary of flora and fauna.’

‘We could consult an American biographical dictionary, in case Burdett left a lasting mark.’